Qualla: Merida Cable Car

Merida Cable Car: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brauliochavez22, CC BY-SA 3.0. The name Mukumbari means "place where the sun sleeps" in the indigenous language, and the cable car that bears it climbs to a place where the sun feels close enough to touch. From a base station in the city of Merida at 1,577 meters, the system ascends 12.5 kilometers across rugged Andean terrain to Pico Espejo at 4,765 meters -- nearly 16,000 feet above sea level. It is the highest cable car in the world, and the second longest. Passengers who board at the bottom in short sleeves arrive at the top in a landscape of rock, ice, and thin air, where the temperature can drop below freezing even when the valley below basks in tropical warmth. The original system opened to the public in March 1960. After 48 years of service, it was closed, demolished, and rebuilt from scratch. The new Mukumbari cable car reopened in October 2016.

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Image: Brauliochavez22 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Merida Cable Car: An International Construction Project

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cristhopher Borrero V., CC BY 3.0. The idea was born in 1952 from the Club Andino Venezolano, a mountaineering club whose members wanted easier access to the Sierra Nevada de Merida. The Venezuelan government approved the concept, and by 1955, construction had begun. The project was staggeringly international. The...

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Image: Cristhopher Borrero V. | CC BY 3.0

Merida Cable Car: Scaling the Sierra

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Venezuela1 assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. The route comprises four cable car sections connected in series, each with two lanes carrying a cabin that holds 60 passengers. The cabins move at five meters per second along suspended cables powered by engines at two stations: La Montana, which drives the lower section, and Lom...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Venezuela1 assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Merida Cable Car: Closure and Rebirth

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0. On August 11, 2008, the Venezuelan Ministry of Tourism shut the cable car indefinitely. The Doppelmayr Group, the Austrian firm that is the world's leading cable car manufacturer, inspected the system and recommended against further repairs -- after 48 years of continuous service...

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Image: Maclemo | CC BY-SA 3.0

Merida Cable Car: Where the Sun Sleeps

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Haroldarmitage, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pico Espejo, the cable car's terminus, stands directly across from Pico Bolivar, Venezuela's highest mountain at 4,978 meters. The two peaks are separated by a saddle that mountaineers use as a staging point for summit attempts. For most visitors, though, the cable car station is...

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Image: Haroldarmitage | CC BY-SA 3.0